Spinyfins are a family, Diretmidae, of
trachichthyform fishes. The family name is derived from the
type genus
In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name.
Zoological nomenclature
According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal f ...
, ''
Diretmus'', from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, ''di'' meaning "two" and ''eretmos'' meaning "oar". They are found worldwide in deep waters, as deep as .
As the common name implies, spinyfins have heavy spines along their fins. They have deep, compressed bodies, and almost vertically aligned mouths. They are dark silver in colour, and reach up to in length.
[
]
See also
*List of fish families
This is a list of fish families sorted alphabetically by scientific name. There are 525 families in the list.
__NOTOC__
A - B - C - D - E - F -
G - H - I - J - K -
L - M - N - O - P - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z
--- ...
References
Diretmidae
Taxa described in 1896
Taxa named by Theodore Gill
{{Trachichthyiformes-stub